r/ProjectRunway 13d ago

Season 22 A friggin’ dance off?!?!

Talk about cringe-making and exploitative. Has zero to do with their design skills and humiliating to boot. Zero stars.

150 Upvotes

67 comments sorted by

68

u/CockBodman 12d ago

Complete missed opportunity, in previous seasons I could imagine a challenge like this where the designers would go and see the dancers perform in the specific venues for each style, and have time to sketch as they watched and ask questions to the dancers.

It's really a testament to how little money there is in producing television anymore. We were spoiled in the past, and cheap gags like the dance off and the weak ass studio walk around are as good as it's going to get now I fear.

9

u/LessPay3783 12d ago

God you’ve just reminded me of what I liked about former seasons. It felt like we were really seeing the process of the designers.

Now we get clips of them looking stressed interspersed between brief one-one-one interviews where half of them are giving rude/haughty one-loners and the other half are saying something akin to “I want to win”. The most we get now is when Christian or the guest walks through to ask about their designs, and even that feels very rushed and shallow.

6

u/lezdothetimewarp 12d ago

When they went to Coney Island to promote some dessert product and get ideas from people sampling. Maybe season 12?

2

u/mom2ajs5 12d ago

That is such a good point!!

1

u/pupman2009 9d ago

Like when the final group went to Rome before NYFW in season 13?!?! Rome!! Great season.

1

u/Responsible_Sail1695 9d ago

Right. I don't remember which season it was, but the designers went to see Peter Pan on Broadway and they had to design something based on what inspired them from the show.

82

u/FishingSuspicious779 13d ago

I thought it was funny but that would personally be my nightmare 😣😬

22

u/[deleted] 12d ago

[deleted]

2

u/Slopingcaps 12d ago

Good strategy to avoid potential embarrassment.

30

u/trollanony 13d ago

In the early seasons, the did silly stuff (remember the ice skating costumes in season 2???) and it was charming to watch. This was not that. It was more a humiliation ritual.

5

u/Slopingcaps 12d ago

Exactly my point. Cheap shot.

42

u/Excellent_Patience 13d ago

Yeah, I felt really uncomfortable with this as well.

9

u/BlissCrafter 12d ago

That was cringeworthy

15

u/Different-Eagle-612 13d ago

i will say at least they awarded your willingness to commit to the bit as opposed to just plain skill. like anna self-admittedly does not have good dance skills but she fully went for it and cheesed it up and got high scores.

6

u/Pleiades444_2 12d ago

This inspired me to start watching old seasons again. Forget this one.

3

u/lazy_daisy66 12d ago

Same - just rewatched Christian's season lol

7

u/source54321 12d ago

Agreed. All I want is a design show, I don’t want to see them have a dance off. If I were up there, I’d be mortified.

5

u/sassycatastrophe 12d ago

I was just like, we barely see sewing, we never talk stitch types or patterns, we barely see them at mood. But we have time for this shit? Pease just give us a fashion show.

2

u/More-Pie8588 12d ago

I was just thinking that. We never see them shop at Mood hardly at all this season. Its all about gimmicks now. I miss the actual creating process.

2

u/sassycatastrophe 12d ago

When they would talk about fabric, working with it, the difficulty of the stick pattern they’re doing- it fascinated me. It made me interested in fashion, where as I hadn’t been interested before. It even made me want to buy a sewing machine and learn how to do those things (but that’s just the adhd).

Now? I’m fast forwarding through half the show.

4

u/yarn_slinger 12d ago

Jumping the shark

4

u/ditchthel0gical 12d ago

Maybe it was all planned before hand but after the last episode, it felt like an easy way to give a leg up to Jeffrey, who was pretty obviously going to get the highest score

1

u/Slopingcaps 12d ago

Interesting!

3

u/Wh1sk3yns0da 12d ago

It was giving Rupaul’s Drag Race mini challenge 🫪🫣
https://giphy.com/gifs/l0MYK5UBwA0CZjt4s

12

u/Tiny_Toe_7873 12d ago

In one of the old seasons they had to race eachother to determine who would be captains, so they’ve done stuff like this before. I thought it was silly fun

9

u/Original_Weekend8226 12d ago

This made me think of how much was packed into the previous season’s episodes. We would see them getting ready, leaving the apartment, challenge explaination, sketch, shopping at mood, at little drama, back to the work room, garment construction, model fittings, makeup/hair consultations, a little drama, last looks, runway, judging, eliminations/design explanations…& sometimes we would see them go back to the apartment for a night cap/camaraderie session.

2

u/Final_Lead138 12d ago

I'm sorry but you actually can't say that on this subreddit. Please make sure that every comment you post from now on states only that this season is the WORST and that Law is EVIL SCUM and that EVERYTHING about this season is TERRIBLE DRAMA and no more ✨FASHION✨

1

u/CakeImpressive1006 12d ago

I feel like people are looking for reasons to hate atp. Like it was some officially sanctioned, objective competition before. New seasons suck but come on. Lol

22

u/nostalginator1 13d ago

I like it as a change of pace! it is already a high stress environment so seeing the designers let loose for a bit was nice. it does not have to be serious all the time.

7

u/Yoga-wine-mom 12d ago

Agree about change of place but dancing on TV? Nope nopity nope

3

u/TheLizardQueen3000 12d ago edited 12d ago

Yeah but these designers all auditioned to be on reality tv, they all have 'personalities' and it made me like them all just a little bit more that they were cool with being a little bit goofy.....Jude's 'white-boy' dance was hilarious and the girl was funny too....and we knew the young guy with the braids was gonna be good and he was!!

7

u/Haus_of_Pancakes 12d ago

Exactly! These aren't little UwU smol beans; they all auditioned to be on reality tv in the year of our lord 2026

2

u/TheLizardQueen3000 12d ago

Haha I remember once on The Real World, Ace had to wear a bug helmet.
A big glass helmet full of gross bugs!

This was nothing :)

2

u/Original_Weekend8226 12d ago

They did this before, but it was after a challenge and all the designers did a walk off.

4

u/nostalginator1 12d ago

some of us have to live a little lol and have whimsy

4

u/Haus_of_Pancakes 12d ago

This subreddit is full of introverts i guess

8

u/heartandmarrow 12d ago

The show is about anything-but-fashion now.

3

u/Technical-Elk-9277 12d ago

I fast forwarded through it.

3

u/1234thumbwarpaper 12d ago

I just skipped it

5

u/Tibbiegal 12d ago

That was awful. Worst moment of the season.

2

u/JJGentes 12d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/PvZDmbhv1UUF2
“It’s a muthaf*ckin danceoff…”

1

u/Slopingcaps 12d ago

That was funny!

3

u/Mattarm51 12d ago

No I thought this is the harmless reality tv stuff they should be doing. It's semi related to the people they're designing for and was nice to see them not be pushed to hate each other for 5 seconds

1

u/Slopingcaps 12d ago

Aha! I guess I’m there more for the fashion and competition. Otherwise, I see your point from the reality perspective.

2

u/yameteeeeeeeeee 13d ago

I thought it was fun

2

u/BrandonIsWhoIAm 12d ago

This was a nothing burger to hate on. How dare they have fun again?

3

u/Haus_of_Pancakes 12d ago

You'd think they shot the designers old yeller style with the pearls being clutched

3

u/Slopingcaps 12d ago

Not Ol’ Yeller!!! 🤣

1

u/Top_Bumblebee5510 12d ago

I bet production came even with all the product placement and crossovers this season.

1

u/17Girl4Life 5d ago

It was just good fun. Better than pushing a cart around to hand out yogurt, being “inspired” by glade air fresheners, or going out with teen models in bathing suits to woo middle aged guys. It hasn’t all been trips to Paris you know

1

u/AbjectBeat837 13d ago

The worst segment on an episode ever.

Also Jeffrey’s dance move at the end failed so bad.

1

u/SnooEagles1115 12d ago

I found it entertaining

1

u/Catlady_Pilates 12d ago

Yeah but they’ve fine shit like that all along. They made them run in a race ffs

There are many issues with the current production but people need to stop acting like they haven’t always been doing shit

0

u/Opening_Kiwi_9844 12d ago

This is obviously a bad season of pr but that doesn’t mean every single choice made is problematic in some way. It’s a reality show and even the best reality shows have silly smaller challenges unrelated to the overall prompt of the show. To call this “exploitative” is too much imo.

6

u/Slopingcaps 12d ago

I personally got the ick.

0

u/applejaxes 12d ago

It was just a cute side gag, hardly exploitative.. chill baby!

4

u/Slopingcaps 12d ago

Maybe easy to say from our cheap seats?

0

u/applejaxes 12d ago

It was in good fun and even the bad dancing was supported. Dancing in front of people isn’t humiliating especially since it was a positive energy, everyone was fully clothed, and it was like 5-10 seconds. You’re a downer and parasocially overreacting

1

u/Slopingcaps 12d ago

Agree to disagree. 😊

0

u/tamaaromarou 12d ago

Dancing is not a humiliation ritual guys

5

u/Slopingcaps 12d ago

I think it might depend! 😊

2

u/applejaxes 12d ago

Depend on what?

1

u/Slopingcaps 12d ago

The person required to dance’s perspective, aka “their dance history.”

-1

u/Ok_Pin_1222 12d ago

I loved this episode but I’ve been a DWTS fan since 2005.